After discovering sous vide on YouTube, I wanted one. I like cooking and I love gadgets, this was right up my alley. I chose the Anova as my appliance of choice. Today, I made the first meal with it. I had some frozen Smithfield Pork Chops that are already seasoned and vacuum sealed, so I said, why not. 140º F for 3 hours, then finished them with a pan sear in a touch of oil. Made an apple purée and a bed of shredded lettuce.

Keep in mind that I've already prepared some of these Smithfield Pork Chops on the grill and using the Instant Pot. Those two methods seemed good, until today. Next, I need to figure out what kind of containers I want to use because I foresee much use of the Anova.

The pre-seasoned pork chops happened to be what I had in the freezer needing to be used. I love those multi-compartment containers. I use them for lunch most days. The containers that I am trying to decide on are the cooking vessels. Right now, I am using a Sterilite 27-Quart Box. It is a $5 solution from Walmart but eventually, I am looking for a longer lasting solution.

I am torn between the Cambro, Rubbermaid, and Lipavi. For longer cooks, I am thinking about getting a cooler and drilling the appropriate hole. The additional insulation should make the device not work as hard.

Although I chose the Anova model, the Joule was a close second. I use the Joule app and the I love the ChefSteps YouTube videos. Gordon Crilly certain knows his stuff. Not being able to use the device without the iPhone was a deal breaker for me.

The pre-seasoned pork chops happened to be what I had in the freezer needing to be used. I love those multi-compartment containers. I use them for lunch most days. The containers that I am trying to decide on are the cooking vessels. Right now, I am using a Sterilite 27-Quart Box. It is a $5 solution from Walmart but eventually, I am looking for a longer lasting solution.

I am torn between the Cambro, Rubbermaid, and Lipavi. For longer cooks, I am thinking about getting a cooler and drilling the appropriate hole. The additional insulation should make the device not work as hard.

Although I chose the Anova model, the Joule was a close second. I use the Joule app and the I love the ChefSteps YouTube videos. Gordon Crilly certain knows his stuff. Not being able to use the device without the iPhone was a deal breaker for me.

I have only done one really long cook -- about 16 hours. I wrapped towels around and over my stock pot that I use for most sous vide cooks. It was not elegant, but it worked.

I would get a cheap cooler, and hack it up if I were to do more long sous vide cooks. Unless I was cooking for pay, I would hate to spend the money on a Cambro, especially if it had to be "modified."

CD

__________________I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell -- Richard Feynman